Can we say that some people are better at reading emotions, while others are worse? Yes, you can. I propose to figure out what this is connected with. Let's start with the floor. I think few people will be surprised if I write that women are better at recognizing emotions than men. And indeed, the advantage of women in decoding emotions from facial expressions has been scientifically shown (Galagher, Sheentich, 1981; Jancik, 1981). But, despite the widespread myth that a woman loves with her ears, R. Rosenthal and M. De-Paulo-Bella (Rosental, De-Paulo-Bella, 1979) showed that women’s advantage in recognizing emotions by voice is not revealed. That is, during emotional communication, women rely more on the visual channel of perception. Maybe that’s why the indifferent look infuriates them so much? :) Then let’s take personality traits. Thus, T.V. Korneva (1978) and V.Kh. Manerov (1990) revealed that sensitive, anxious, easily vulnerable, insightful, and cautious in contacts with people subjects better recognize emotions in speech. And vice versa, epileptoids, hysterics, schizoids during emotional contact have a very mediocre understanding of the emotions of others. As, indeed, in our own. Now about the profession. Different professions have different requirements for recognizing emotions. Thus, a person from a profession that is focused on communication and assessing the emotional state always has a better chance of reading the emotions of others due to his regular training. Moreover, the range of such professions is very wide - from sales managers (everything that is sold) and teachers to doctors and psychologists. By the way, many residents of b17 may be pleased by the fact that T.V. Korneva and E.F. Bazhin (1977) scientifically showed that psychiatrists were the best at recognizing emotions compared not only to mathematicians and engineers, but even compared to doctors of other specialties (therapists, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists, etc.). Still, focusing on the human psyche and a persistent desire to give him some kind of psychiatric diagnosis does its job. Next, cultural characteristics. Here it will be interesting to note the fact that the place of birth and residence affects both the accuracy of determining emotions and the tendency to exaggerate/understate individual emotions. Thus, Yu. V. Granskoy (1998) showed that students from Russia were much more effective than students from other countries in recognizing fear, sadness, surprise and disgust. But it happened much worse with such resourceful emotions as happiness and joy, and also with anger. Which is understandable if we remember the fun 90s in our country. On the other hand, another conclusion suggests itself - that the ability to rejoice is not very developed, which may well correlate with the percentage level of dependent people in our country. But, for example, age does not give a simple and clear picture. Thus, for obvious reasons, children are worse at recognizing the emotions (consciously) of others. But, on the other hand, with age, this ability begins to show significant failures. You can subscribe to my articles and blog posts here Do you want to learn how to manage your neurosis on your own? Take an online psychocorrection course individually or in a group! You may find my following articles useful: